Beginning Monday morning, the lobby of the Mount Carmel Community assisted- and independent-living facility will be filled with rocking chairs placed around the Christmas tree. These chairs will be filled with residents and employees, and all will be “Rocking Around the Christmas Tree” in support of a 2-year-old boy from Tull, a small community south of Benton in Grant County.
The boy is Dexter McDade, the son of Jerred and Alexis McDade. Dexter is in need of a kidney.
“When he was 2 weeks old, he was diagnosed with end-stage kidney failure and began dialysis a few days later,” his mother said. “When he was 3 months old, they found a Wilms’ tumor on one of his kidneys. They removed both of his kidneys, and he went through five months of chemotherapy. As of this past April, he has been cancer-free for one year.
“We’ve been waiting for him to turn 2 and for him to be cancer-free for one year. Now we can begin to think about a kidney transplant. The next step is to find a donor. They have been testing me to see if I would be a good match. It’s a complicated process. It could take two to three months.”
If Alexis is not a good match, she said, the next step will be to search for someone who would be.
Dexter remains on dialysis.
“Every night, we do dialysis at home,” Alexis said.
She said they had no idea anything was wrong with Dexter when he was born.
“But when he was 2 weeks old, he woke up from a nap, and his eye was terribly swollen,” she said. “He looked like he had been in a boxing match.
“We took him to the pediatrician, and they ran some tests. The pediatrician called at 8 o’clock at night and said we needed to get Dexter to [Arkansas Children’s Hospital] immediately.
“We checked in and thought everything was going to be OK. Then about 30 people came out of the [exam] room, and we realized how serious it was. They told us he was in kidney failure.”
Alexis said Dexter was in the pediatric intensive-care unit for four weeks and on a regular floor for another two weeks. He continues to have regular appointments at the Little Rock hospital.
“The first few days were hard,” she said, “but you do what you have to do to get your child through it.”
The McDades also have two daughters — Gracie, 10, and Jadyn, 6 — who attend Pine Haven Elementary School in Bauxite.
“He loves to play with his sisters,” Alexis said. “He loves to sing. He loves to play baseball.”
Alexis said she became aware of the Mount Carmel Community facility this past summer at the ballpark.
“[Jimmy Elrod’s] granddaughter played ball with my youngest daughter,” Alexis said. “He saw Dexter running around the ballpark. He looks just like any other little boy except for his tubie (feeding tube) in his nose.”
“My granddaughter, Ali, played ball with one of Dexter’s sisters,” said Elrod, executive director/managing partner of Mount Carmel. “We met during the last game of the season.”
He said he met the McDade family and heard Dexter’s story.
“It touched my heart,” Elrod said. “I went home, and I just couldn’t get [Dexter] off my mind. I talked to my wife, Kathy, and my son, Josh, and they came up with this idea for a fundraiser.
“I wanted Mount Carmel to be involved. Our residents are good, loving and caring people. When they heard Dexter’s story, they wanted to be involved wholeheartedly.”
Elrod said the Rocking Around the Christmas Tree event revolves around something that everyone can do — rock in a rocking chair. Those who sign up to rock for one hour are asking family and friends to sponsor them by making a donation to the fundraiser.
Elrod said anyone can call and sponsor a rocker. The event will continue through Friday. All funds raised will be donated to the McDade family for expenses related to Dexter’s eventual kidney transplant.
“We are so very grateful to Mount Carmel for having this fundraiser,” Alexis said. “Dexter loves to sit and rock. We have a rocker at home.
“Our whole community has been so great,” she said. “Our family, our friends, our church (Saline Missionary Baptist Church in Tull) have been so good to us.”
She said because Dexter is in end-stage renal disease, he qualifies for Medicare.
“So we have good insurance, but he requires a lot of doctor’s visits back and forth to Children’s. Once he gets a transplant, he will have to be in the hospital for at least two weeks. Then we will have to go two or three times a week for lab work.
“This will be lifelong,” she said. “A transplant is not a cure; it’s a treatment. He will always be in a compromised situation.
“This one kidney won’t last forever,” Alexis said. “But he will be able to function with one kidney. He won’t have to have the dialysis like he does now, and hopefully, he will be able to eat by mouth. The prognosis will be good once he gets that kidney.”
Those interested in supporting Dexter through the Rocking Around the Christmas Tree fundraiser can contact Shannon at Mount Carmel Community at (501) 315-1555 or Shannon@mtcarmelcommunity.com.